


Insufficient Protection

by thedriedplum



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29588784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedriedplum/pseuds/thedriedplum
Summary: Morag MacDougal wants to enter the Triwizard Tournament, and she isn't about to let something as stupid as an Age Line stop her. One-shot. AU.





	Insufficient Protection

Morag groaned as Dumbledore announced that the Triwizard tournament would only be open to students who were of age. Across from her, Sue leaned in triumphantly. “Ha, how are you going to enter now?”

“I’ll be fine. The goblet does not know who’s of age and who’s not.”

“To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.”

“But the Age Line will,” Sue shot back, smiling at Dumbledore’s latest pronouncement. “Besides, it’s there for a reason. You wouldn’t be able to survive these tasks.”

“I know magic that some of the older students don’t. And I have a brain, which most people here don’t. I’ll find a way to enter myself. Nothing is foolproof. I know I can beat it.”

“Dumbledore’s drawing it. You won’t be able to beat it.”

“Runes isn’t Dumbledore’s subject. I can break through.”

“I’ll look forward to seeing you try.”

* * *

As soon as the feast ended, Morag headed straight for the library to find as many books about warding as she could. If she knew what kind of things to look out for, it would mean that she could break the wards faster, which would mean less chance of getting caught.

She remained in the library, hard at work, until Madam Pince came to close it, at which point she packed all the work she had done so far into her bag, checked out as many books as she could carry, and resumed her work in Ravenclaw Tower.

At 1 o’clock, Sue came down to try to persuade her to give up and sleep. “I’m making good progress, Sue, and this is more important than any of my lessons tomorrow.”

“Snape will kill you if you fall asleep in his class.”

“Snape can go to hell. I can do Potions anytime. I have only a day to do this.”

“Alright, but you won’t get anywhere. It will be far too complex even for your runic abilities to work out in a day. Good night, Morag.”

“Good night Sue. I will prove you wrong.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

Sue returned to the dorm, while Morag turned back to her work and groaned. Contrary to what she had told her friend, she was not making good progress. Most of what had been written down on her paper had also been crossed out. Deciding that she was getting nowhere with the theoretical, she packed her bag full of books. She then wrote _Morag MacDougal, Hogwarts_ on a slip of paper as neatly as she could. Disillusioning herself, she left Ravenclaw tower.

When arrived in the Entrance Hall, she saw Professor Moody slip walking away from the Goblet right towards her. She instinctively pulled back away from him, forgetting that she was as good as invisible, but Moody’s magical eye swivelled directly towards her. Fortunately, Moody just walked past her, smiling to himself as he did so.

Morag waved her hand in front of her face just to make sure that she was still disillusioned. Seeing that she was, she looked back in the direction that Moody had gone in fear. Could his eye see her, even when she was invisible? Surely, if he had seen her, he would have stopped her. He had been one of the most paranoid but successful aurors ever, after all. Then again, maybe he didn’t care about rule breakers at school, having dealt with numerous murderous criminals. Either way, Morag realised, it didn’t matter, so she hurried into the Entrance Hall itself.

The Goblet was standing in all its glory in the centre of the room, so close, yet so far from Morag, at least until she could get rid of the pesky Age Line preventing her from going any closer than ten feet from it. Whispering, she cast her best diagnostic charm on the line, which made the runes used become visible

“Shit,” she whispered to herself. Dumbledore had clearly not skimped on security for the line. He had weaved together charms made from all sorts of different runic languages, which interwove neatly. Morag would have to translate all of the runes and then write her own runes specifically to counter them in all of the languages they were in.

Glad at least that Dumbledore had not set any runes to alert him if anyone started tampering with the runes, she got to work. She began with the languages she recognised, with the aid of her textbooks and library books. Once she had finished with those, she got to work trying to work out the few remaining languages. In the next few hours, she was able to work out all but one, which, no matter how hard she looked in her books, she could not find out what it was. In frustration, she threw the nearest book across the room.

She heard a loud clanging noise, and saw the book lying at the base of the goblet. “Fuck.”. How was she going to get the book back? She couldn’t wait until morning to ask one of the older Ravenclaws, because one of the teachers would be awake first, and they would identify the book as having been borrowed by her. No, she had to break through the Age Line to get the book back.

The stakes now higher, she decided to try to work out what was missing from the enchantment, and thus what the unfamiliar runes said. After a while trying this, she had still not had any success. Once more, she cursed herself for throwing the book away. Had it not been for the need to get it back before daybreak, she could have gone to the library and spent the day working out what they were even though it would have been riskier to disable the wards right under the nose of a crowd of students. As it was, she would need to break them in the next couple of hours, so she decided to ignore that section of runes and break the rest. She drew her wand and looked around the room to make sure that she was indeed alone. As she did so, her eyes fell once more on the book lying inside the Age Line, and she was struck with an idea.

She already knew that she could not step past the Age Line herself, but the book was inside the circle. She fished the slip of paper with her name on it out of her pocket and placed it on the ground. “ _Wingardium Leviosa_ ,” she whispered. The paper flew into the air and over the Age Line without incident. Smiling to herself, she dropped it into the Goblet, summoned the book and returned to her dorm, where she fell asleep immediately.

* * *

She was shaken awake by Sue the following morning, just ten minutes before the start of lessons. “Why did you not wake me earlier?” Morag asked her as she rushed around the dorm, collecting the things she would need for her first lessons of the day.

“You don’t normally need waking up, and you hadn’t even changed into your pyjamas, so I knew you must have been tired. What time did you even go to bed. Morag shrugged. “Was your hard work at least successful?” Sue pushed.

“My hard work was not,” Morag said, exiting the dorm. “The answer was very easy. I should have seen it way sooner than I did.”

“Sounds like it wasn’t so easy then,” Sue teased her.

“Oh, believe me, it is. When I tell you tonight how I did it, you won’t believe how you missed it as a possibility.”

“But I don’t want to enter.”

“You should still see it as a possibility.”

“I don’t believe you. You’re lying to save face,” Sue accused her.

“Keep on believing that. You’ll find out that you’re wrong tonight,” Morag said, grinning at her friend as she entered the classroom and sat down.

* * *

Morag had scarcely been able to concentrate during the day, and she was far from the only one. The excitement in the Great Hall during the feast was greater than she had ever seen it, although she herself was more nervous than excited. She said barely a word during the meal, only promising her housemates that she would tell them how she had done it after the selection of the champions. Looking up and down the table, she noticed that the Beauxbâtons contingent was looking much the same way that she was feeling, as were those of the sixth- and seventh-years who had entered their names.

At long last, Dumbledore stood up and the room fell into silence. Viktor Krum was the first to be chosen, for Durmstrang. Predictably, this was greeted with loud cheers. Next, Fleur Delacour was chosen for Beauxbâtons, to more muted applause. After that, the tension in the hall became unbearable. The Hogwarts champion was to be chosen next. Morag felt the knot in her stomach growing tighter. The flames in the Goblet of Fire flashed red. A slip of paper was ejected from it. Dumbledore caught it and looked down at it. The entire Hogwarts population looked on in anticipation.

“The Hogwarts champion …” Dumbledore announced, before pausing. “The Hogwarts champion,” he repeated, more loudly, “is Morag MacDougal.”

There was a momentary silence in the hall, before the Ravenclaw table erupted in cheers, followed by applause from the rest of the hall. Morag beamed and stood up. Leaning over to Sue, she whispered, “ _Wingardium Leviosa_ is a first-year spell, after all.” As she walked towards the front, she glanced back at her friend, who was now standing open-mouthed as she celebrated.

“Through there,” Dumbledore instructed her, his face stony, pointing towards the room the other two champions had gone into.

She entered the small chamber, beaming, and sat down on one of the sofas to await the judges’ instructions. The other two champions, who had been pacing around the room, both stood still and stared at her. Eventually, Fleur spoke. “Where is the Hogwarts champion?”

“I am the Hogwarts champion.”

“You are too young,” Viktor said.

Morag shrugged. “The Goblet of Fire doesn’t care how old you are.” Accepting this answer, Viktor resumed his pacing, while Fleur remained where she was, staring at Morag.

Dumbledore stormed into the room, followed by the other judges and Professor Flitwick. Maxime and Karkaroff went over to their respective champions. Flitwick watched Morag with a smile on his face. Bagman and Crouch had expressions of bewilderment on their faces. Dumbledore, however, had the face of a thunderstorm. “Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Morag?” he demanded.

“Aye.” Flitwick continued smiling at her, while Dumbledore was bewildered.

“How did you get past the Age Line?”

Morag shrugged. “I didn’t.”

“But you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?” Dumbledore asked. “You didn’t ask an older student to do it for you?”

“No, I did it myself.”

“Then how did you get past the Age Line?”

“I did not get past the Age Line.” At everyone else’s expressions of confusion, she decided to continue. “Such a clever idea, an Age Line. Specifically designed to keep underage students out. And very impressive warding too. I wasn’t able to break through. Fortunately, there was a much simpler solution.” Dumbledore was now staring at her angrily. Smiling at him, Morag continued. “It’s such a shame, isn’t it, that underage students couldn’t get past it. After all, we all heard about what happened to those poor souls who tried to cross despite their young age. Almost as if there’s no way to move things without touching them. And definitely not one that has already been taught to the first years.”

Dumbledore’s expression morphed from confusion to understanding and then once more to anger. Bagman looked impressed. A small squeal of excitement escaped from Flitwick. Crouch was unreadable. Behind her, Morag heard laughing. “Oho,” Karkaroff said. “Albus Dumbledore, chair of the ICW, defeater of Dark Lords everywhere, bested in thought by a 15-year-old.”

“Fourteen,” Morag corrected him.

“This will make quite the story,” Karkaroff continued, ignoring her. “I did not expect the excitement to start quite this early.”

“You will be in detention for this for a long time, Morag. The rules were clear. This is for of age students only.”

“Your protections should have been better. You knew underage students would want to enter.”

“Be that as it may, breaking the rules is to be punished.”

“Professor, would it not be a better use of time for her to practise for the tournament?” Flitwick asked Dumbledore.

“I would agree,” Crouch said, stepping forward for the first time. “The Goblet of Fire is an impartial judge and has decided upon Ms MacDougal as the worthiest Hogwarts student to be named champion. She now has to compete in the tournament. If she is better than the rest of the student body, and the Goblet has said that she is, and she does badly because she has not had time to train, how will that reflect on your school? Besides, you know my thoughts on the age limit already.”

Dumbledore continued glaring at her. “Why did you enter anyway?”

“I wanted to. I know I’m good enough.”

“Why then did you not give up upon hearing about the Age Line?”

Flitwick laughed. Dumbledore turned his glare to him. “Ravenclaws do not often give up, especially when they are motivated and the challenge is of an intellectual nature.”

“Exactly,” Morag said. “And I think that I was nearly successful in breaking the wards, but for one of the languages that I didn’t recognise and couldn’t find in the library books. I will have to check with Professor Vector, of course, but fortunately I found a simpler solution.”

Dumbledore thought for a moment, looking very angry at Morag. “Fine. You are in the tournament and you do not have detention. Barty, Ludo, I leave it to you to explain the task.” With one final glare in Morag’s direction, he left the room.

Bagman stepped forwards. “Firstly, congratulations to you all for being selected to be the champion for your respective schools. It is no mean feat, I assure you. The first task will take place on Saturday, 26 November. As it is designed to test your daring and ability to think under pressure, I will not be telling you what it is. You may not ask your teachers for help. You will receive instructions for the Second Task upon completion of the first. Once again, I offer you my congratulations and best wishes for the tournament.” Having finished speaking, he too left the room, followed by Crouch. Maxime and Fleur, and Karkaroff and Viktor also left at once, leaving Morag and Flitwick alone in the room.

Morag made to follow the others out of the room, but Flitwick stopped her. “Morag.” Morag turned around, wondering what her head of house was going to say. To her surprise, he was still smiling. “A levitation charm, very clever. I was wondering if people would think of that. I am very pleased that you did.”

“You saw this problem with the Age Line?” Morag asked.

“Yes. The headmaster has always valued magical power more than anything else, but do not underestimate the value of intellect. Remember that. Always try the simple before the complicated.”

“I will, professor. Thank you.” She turned to leave once more, but Flitwick called her again.

“Oh, and Morag?” She turned to face him. “Celebrate well. You deserve it.”

“Thank you, professor. I intend to.”

**Author's Note:**

> “To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.” is a direct quotation from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.


End file.
